Cotton was descending the stairs, heading somewhere. Behind her, maids followed anxiously.

“Your Imperial Majesty, His Majesty is busy and won’t be in his office today either.”

“That’s right. He hasn’t been on the throne for long. Please return to your room.”

They blocked Cotton’s path and tried to stop her, but when they finally arrived at a certain door, they sighed with defeated expressions.

Knock, knock. 

Cotton knocked, but no answer came from inside. However, she’d expected this—she’d experienced it countless times over the past year—so she simply turned the handle. Today, she couldn’t just turn back.

When she entered, she saw Aberdeen’s back—he was the aide. The voice that had been filtering through the crack in the door must have been his. But he wasn’t her objective. 

As she stepped further inside, she saw Rickton, who had been hidden behind the aide’s figure. His hair neatly swept back, he sat at his desk, focused on documents.

She’d thought he’d be here, but now that she confirmed it with her own eyes, she felt hollow. 

Days when she’d had to turn back time and again flashed through her mind. Had he really not been in his office those times, or had he ignored her like today?

“Your Majesty.”

Cotton approached the desk and called to him. But his gaze remained fixed on the paper, unmoving.

“Your Majesty, could you spare me some time?”

She called again—same result. Aberdeen, who had been greeting her, began glancing at her nervously as the Emperor showed not even the slightest movement. After several attempts, Rickton’s head finally lifted.

“This budget item seems wasteful. Are the audits being conducted properly? Have them submit the account books immediately.”

“Pardon? Yes… I understand.”

Aberdeen, who had been glancing sideways at Cotton, hurriedly took notes, and Rickton continued, pointing out issues with other matters. Cotton closed her mouth and waited silently as their voices went back and forth. 

Even though she stood closer than the aide, he wouldn’t look at her—she had no choice but to wait. When work ends, surely he’ll make time, she hoped, taking in her husband’s face that she hadn’t seen in so long.

Their conversation continued for quite a while. The longer it went, the more Aberdeen’s face grew somber, and Cotton’s head drooped toward the floor like a wilting sunflower. 

Though she stood right before him, she was treated like an invisible person, and the courage she’d barely mustered crumbled to ash.

“Make sure everything I mentioned is taken care of.”

Time that felt like seconds stretched into minutes, and Rickton put down the document he’d been reading. Seeing him rise from his seat and grab his coat, he apparently had somewhere to go.

When signs of their conversation ending appeared, Aberdeen quickly stepped back and respectfully raised both palms toward Cotton. She nodded lightly and walked toward Rickton. If not now, she wouldn’t be able to talk to him—or even see him—for some time.

“Rick…”

It was the moment she called his name. A gust of wind swept past as Rickton walked by her. Cotton stood frozen. She couldn’t bring herself to turn around. Though she’d been treated this way throughout the entire year since their marriage, it was hard to get used to.

Aberdeen, watching this, shuffled his feet helplessly, then bowed and followed the Emperor.

Cotton blinked for a moment, then belatedly turned around. She wanted to try stopping him one more time. But through the door that hadn’t closed, an irritated voice drifted in.

“…Didn’t I tell you to stop her? What are you doing, letting her barge into my office? Keep her quietly confined to her room.”

Cotton slowly stopped her steps toward the corridor. The commotion of voices soon faded into the distance. In the silence that remained empty of everything, she clasped her hands together demurely. She felt like all the blood was draining from her body—she needed something to hold onto.

Cotton remained alone in the office for a while, fidgeting with her hands, before heading to the marital chamber. Since she’d been the only one using it from their wedding day, no one working in the imperial palace thought of it as a couple’s bedroom, but she stubbornly called it that.

“See, I knew this would happen. Why do you barge in like that? You just got us scolded for nothing.”

When Cotton handed over the shawl she’d been wearing and sat wearily on the sofa, Sheildi, her personal maid, grumbled while tidying up. With her husband Rickton ascending to Emperor, she too had properly become Empress. 

Normally, one would be careful with both speech and behavior before an Empress, but Sheildi deliberately shook out the shawl roughly, making it obvious she was annoyed.

“Please leave. I want to rest.”

But Cotton didn’t point out the rudeness. She wasn’t the type to scold others anyway, and she had neither the strength nor energy left to say anything to her. More than anything, she didn’t really understand what the position of Empress entailed. 

At that, Sheildi’s expression brightened considerably, seemingly glad to be rid of a bothersome task, and she gave a perfunctory greeting before leaving.

“You’ll stay in your room, right? If you need to go out, please call me.”

Words she always heard when left alone. She’d been grateful, thinking it was considerate, but only now did she realize it was meant to prevent her from wandering around.

“…I was a fool.”

Not long after the wedding ceremony, the previous Emperor succumbed to illness and passed away. By the previous Emperor’s will, Prince Rickton immediately held his coronation and became Emperor. 

Cotton had thought that was why she couldn’t see her husband. His father had suddenly died—he must be out of his mind, and having to succeed his father, how busy and exhausted he must be.

The incomprehensible words she’d heard from her husband the day after the wedding—she thought she’d ask about them once he’d settled down. 

Even when she waited in an empty dining room and ate food that had gone cold, even when she waited all night hoping her husband might come see her only to fall asleep exhausted, even when she visited his office and returned hollow after endless silence from beyond the closed door—it was all okay. 

She believed that someday, once the misunderstanding was cleared, things would return to how they were before.

“He didn’t want to see me.”

Cotton’s eyes drooped heavily. Though she spoke like she’d just realized it, she felt like she’d already known it vaguely. That’s why she’d barged into the office without permission.

When she faced the truth she’d been ignoring, vivid pain pierced through her and her closed eyelids trembled. Where exactly did things go wrong? 

From that one question, only the wedding from a year ago came to mind. She’d felt Rickton change from that day.

‘Did I make some mistake at the wedding?’

It was a question that hadn’t left her mind for a single day since then. Though pondering it was meaningless since Rickton refused to have a conversation.

Struggling to erase the feeling from that day when the world seemed to collapse, Cotton laboriously rose. When she opened the door and went out, she saw Sheildi and the maids gathered in the corridor. 

They must have been having an entertaining chat, because Sheildi, who’d been giggling, spotted Cotton and subtly furrowed her brow.

“Your Majesty, why do you come out without saying anything? I clearly told you to call me when you go out.”

For a maid to scold an Empress—it was unimaginable, but Cotton apologized habitually.

“I’m sorry. I’m going down to the first floor.”

“To the reception room again?”

Sheildi, who’d figured out where and why she was going, turned her head away so Cotton couldn’t see her from the front and let out a hollow laugh. Then she nodded carelessly, telling her to go ahead. Since His Imperial Majesty wasn’t here now, she wouldn’t get in trouble whether Cotton wandered around or not.

“When you see His Imperial Majesty arriving, please call me then.”

Cotton, who’d answered that she understood, moved her steps. To the first-floor reception room with the best view of the exclusive entrance the Emperor used. Though it would be an endless wait not knowing when he’d return, this was the only way she could see her husband’s face, even for a fleeting moment.

Curious gazes gathered on the Empress descending the central staircase. Her retreating figure grew distant and completely disappeared from view, then one of the maids scanned the surroundings. After confirming no one was around, she cautiously spoke.

“Still, she is the Empress… What if we get in trouble for this?”

“Ah, you must not have been here long. The Empress never tells His Majesty anything.”

“No, that’s not it. She’s already been abandoned, so she can’t.”

“Even if she did, His Majesty probably wouldn’t scold us much anyway, right?”

The maids giggled as they countered. 

To them, the Empress was already just an Empress in position only—stood up even on their wedding night, not even glanced at by the Emperor—they’d concluded she was someone with no power at all. 

The youngest maid who’d asked what if they got in trouble looked bewildered at their reaction.

“I don’t understand. Then why did His Majesty marry Her Imperial Majesty in the first place?”

“Probably because the Empress is Renedia Alphlut?”

“Renedia Alphlut?”

The puzzled maid’s eyes widened in shock. And for good reason—the name “Renedia Alphlut” was one that no citizen of the Asbern Empire wouldn’t know.

Ten years ago, not just the imperial palace but all of Asbern had been abuzz with one topic for a long time.

The disappearance of Renedia Alphlut.

It was the case of the only daughter of a family with such legitimacy and power that even the imperial family couldn’t treat them carelessly going missing. That person was Renedia Alphlut. 

Not only the Alphlut family but even the imperial family mobilized every means and combed through the empire with a fine-tooth comb, but ultimately failed to find her.

“Wasn’t she declared dead?”

“They judged it that way because they couldn’t find her, but a year ago, His Majesty brought her back.”

“And she really was Renedia Alphlut?”

“The Alphlut couple visited every day back then. They came to see their daughter.”

“No, that’s not right.”

As they whispered, Sheildi suddenly thr*st her face between them and clicked her tongue. When the youngest maid’s eyes widened, she asked like she should think carefully.

“Have the Alphlut couple visited recently?”

“Um, I’ve never seen them.”

“Same for everyone else. What do you think the reason is?”

“Then…”

“She’s not their daughter, so they don’t come anymore.”

Sheildi waved her finger dismissively, as though enjoying the youngest maid’s surprised reaction.

“She’s not called the fake Empress by the servants for nothing. Even now, if you ask her name, she doesn’t say Renedia—she says Cotton. She knows it herself.”

She covered her mouth and laughed like the very thought was absurd. The maids who already knew the inside story burst into laughter along with her.

“Does His Majesty also know the Empress isn’t the Alphlut Princess?”

“He knows and deceived everyone. The wedding ceremony wasn’t held under everyone’s blessings—he married first, then appeared. And he brought someone who looked exactly like her and claimed she was Renedia Alphlut. What could the reason be?”

“Why would he do that?”